My Happy Ending Ch. 6

And again: Valetta! – or: if you don't watch where you're going…

"Here it is!", Ryo claimed enthusiastically.
"Then, what are you waiting for?", Daisuke asked.
The three boys entered the hotel, in which Ryo had seen Rika going before. They went up some stairs and ended up in the lobby. Ryo nervously played with his fingers. Daisuke sighed and Souta rolled his eyes.
"Excuse me,", Souta began, "I'd like to know, if there is a japanese school class in this hotel."
The woman behind the counter eyed the boys suspiciously. Then she smiled.
"Yes, there is.", she answered.
"Well, are you informed about where they went today?",  Souta questioned.
"It's different. Today is their free day, as much as I know. But I think a lot of them went to Valetta.", the woman informed the boys.
"Aha. Thank you very much!", Souta thanked and he, Daisuke and Ryo left the hotel.
"What do we do now?", Daisuke asked.
Ryo shrugged.
"Well, I think we're going to Valetta, too. If we don't run into Rika there, we visit the hotel tonight, maybe after meal. In that case we will certainly find her.", Souta explained.
So, the three young men caught the bus to Valetta.
Not having the slightest idea where to begin their search, they start walking through the streets, here and there looking into a shop or a restaurant.
At five o'clock, after several hours of searching, eating, despairing, and continuing to search, Ryo and his friends were very exhausted.
"I can't go another step further…", Daisuke moaned.
"But, you'll have to. If you want to get home again.", Ryo answered dejected.
They lazily got into a bus which would bring them back to their hotel.

Rika and Risa returned to the hotel around noon. They decided to have a bath in the ocean, since it was so hot. Not far from their hotel was a small bay, where the two girls settled down and jumped into the cool water. Afterwards, they went back to the hotel and took a shower, because there was salt of the ocean in their hair and all over their bodies.
Noticing that her roommates had drunken all of her water, Rika had to go to the little supermarket around the corner and buy some water.

Ryo had gotten off the bus in Sliema. Daisuke and Souta wanted to go back to the hotel and have a shower, since they were sweating a lot.
Ryo exited the bus near a small supermarket. He wanted to buy something to drink for his companions, who had helped him searching for Rika.
He was in a hurry, because he wanted to be back at his hotel before supper. He rushed around a corner and to the entrance of the supermarket.

At exactly the same moment, Rika came out of the supermarket, carrying six bottles of water in her arms and studying the sales slip.

Ryo, not paying attention to his surroundings at all, ran into someone and fell to the ground with this person.

Rika didn't see the young man running towards her, so she was rather shocked when she was knocked to the ground by him.

"Oww!", Rika moaned, at the same time noticing that this someone was lying on top of her. "Chikusho!"
"Gomen.", Ryo apologized. The japanese cursing had caused him to answer in japanese, too.
They opened their eyes at the same time and gasped.
"Ryo!!?", Rika asked shocked and blushed deeply.
Ryo stared at her disbelievingly for a minute. Snapping out of his daydream, he stood up and offered Rika his hand.
Rika took his hand and he pulled her to her feet.
"Ryo, what on earth are you doing here?", Rika asked regaining her voice which had been gone for a second.
"School vacation!", Ryo answered grinning widely.
Before Rika could react, Ryo had pulled her into an embrace.
"I missed you."
"Nani?", Rika blushed even harder.  
After the first shock, Rika and Ryo collected the water bottles from the ground and carried them to Rika's hotel.
"How long are you staying here?", Ryo asked interested on their way to the hotel.
"A week. On Friday we're heading home again.", Rika answered, her heart beating fast in her chest.
"We too.", Ryo answered. "Hey, maybe we're flying with the same plane."
Arriving at the hotel, Rika led Ryo, who had wanted to carry her bottles, to her room. She then went to search for Risa.
'I can't believe it! Then it was really him, who I saw in the bus a few days ago…', Rika thought, not knowing if she should be happy or not.
Finally finding Risa, Rika grabbed her friend by the hand and dragged her to her room, where Ryo was waiting.
Rika opened the door, slightly nervous.
"Risa this is Ryo. Ryo this is my friend Risa…", Rika introduced the two.
"Hi.", Ryo greeted.
"Hi! Rika has told me very much about you!", Risa screamed amazed.
Rika gasped and told Risa to shut up.
The fact that Ryo was there made Rika play with her hair, which fell on her shoulders, nervously. She couldn't explain why he had such an affection on her. She was twisting her hair and didn't know what to talk about. Luckily, Risa was chatting with Ryo more than he wanted. She was literally asking him everything she could think of. From 'How old are you?' to 'Do you have a girlfriend?'.
Ryo was in a helpless situation, too. He had found the girl he loved by the greatest coincidence. Back at home, he already knew that he cared for Rika a great deal more than for just a friend like Jeri, for example. Yet, Ryo had no clue how to act. He sat there, on Rikas bed (he assumed that it was hers, with all the discs on the pillow) and answered Rika's friend's questions. While talking to Risa, Ryo wished that Rika would say something, too. He wanted to know what she felt for him. Was it just friendship? Or was it even below that? Did she really hate him, like she used to say? No, it wasn't hate, he was sure. They had laughed so many times, that he couldn't imagine, that Rika hated him. Despite that, he couldn't stand the thought of Rika hating him…
"Ryo? Hey, Ryo!"
Ryo had been so lost in thoughts, that he barely noticed that Rika was yelling at him. "Huh? Nani?", he asked confused.
Rika sighed deeply and began to speak again.
"I asked, if you intend to stay till supper.", Rika sounded almost… shy.
'She's blushing?', Ryo thought astonished. That was very unlike Rika.
Rika waited for him to answer. Ryo just looked at her … dreamy. The two teenagers hadn't even noticed that Risa was long gone. Or maybe they had forgotten, that she'd been  there in the first place. Rika sat down on her bed next to Ryo. Her heart beat against her breast at an almost painful pace. She was shivering slightly despite the hot climate.
Ryo on the other hand was sweating more than he wanted. He had the sudden urge to touch Rikas arm or embrace her like before at the supermarket. Finally coming to the conclusion that Rika would probably not like it if he was so wet from his sweat, he forced himself to ask:
"Uhm, Rika? Can I use your shower? It's terribly hot in here.", he demanded carefully.
"What? Oh, hai, sure.", Rika answered surprised and rushed into the bathroom. When Ryo followed, she gave him her shower gel and then exited the bathroom.
Ryo took a very quick shower and when he left the bathroom, his hair was wet.
With Ryo looking very funny because of his hair styling, Rika burst out laughing.
Ryo smiled at Rika's happy face and sat down beside her again.
There was a short silence this time.
"I won't have to buy you a souvenir, now.", Rika said, more to herself than to him.
"I guess not.", Ryo couldn't bring himself to ask her the question, he wanted to.
Finally gathering up his courage he took a deep breath.
"Rika?", he began.
"Hai.", she responded.
"I'd like to ask you something, but I think you will laugh at me or get angry or…", Ryo stammered.
"Ryo, just ask.", Rika couldn't imagine what was bothering him that much.
"Well, ", he started again and looked up into Rikas eyes, which stared at him interested.
He looked deeply into her eyes and found his voice again.
"Rika, do you like-"
Exactly at that moment, the door to Rikas room opened and Makoto, Yuri and Ayumi entered.
Ryo quickly shut his mouth and Rika jumped off her bed, quite surprised by the sudden disturbers.
Makoto, Yuri and Ayumi stared at the Digimon Queen and the Legendary Tamer just as surprised.
Ryo stood up and rushed out of the room, but before he vanished, he told Rika to meet him the next day at ten o'clock at the bus station in front of her hotel.
Rika couldn't even answer him, so fast was he gone. She just stared at the place, where he had disappeared, mouth agape.
Rika's three roommates stood in the door and couldn't believe that the one and only Ryo Akiyama had just left their room. The only thing which was more misleading, was the fact the fact that he had been alone in a room with Rika.
Makoto didn't even look at Rika, because she thought that Ryo was too handsome to be Rikas friend. That couldn't be true, he probably had searched for Makoto but he'd only found Rika and had left, disappointed.
Well, Ryo had indeed looked disappointed, but for another reason than that what Makoto was imagining in her sick head.
Rika did not lose a word to Makoto or the others, she headed straight to the restaurant, where she found Risa sitting at a table. Rika took the seat beside her friend.
"And?", Risa looked up, curious, just like Jeri did.
Rika could almost make out little stars in her eyes. This was exactly like Jeri!
"And, what?", Rika asked, both nervous and pretending to be not.
"And, did you kiss him?", Risa asked impatient.
"Nani!!?", Rika yelled shocked.
Risa sighed. "Then you did not?"
"No! Makoto and the other two disturbed him. He wanted to ask something…", Rika explained.
"Oh. These stupid girls…", Risa sighed again.
"But before he left, he told me to meet him tomorrow at ten o'clock at our bus stop.", Rika continued.
"But Ms. Yuki said we'd go to Valetta again and-", Risa began. "But you have to go!"
"Nani?", Rika asked.
"You have to go! Rika, you pretend to be sick tomorrow and instead of going with us, you'll meet Ryo!", Risa explained and smiled at her friend.
Rika was silent.